Help...

[gusto]

Anyone know what this is?

And yes before some one says "its a guitar!" Worked that out all by myself. More specific details would be great, model, age etc... Cheers.

[yorick]

Does it say Hofner on the top left?

[yorick]

If it is a Hofner have a look here....

[url="http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/cont.html"]http://www.vintagehofner.co.uk/cont.html[/url]

[Dave Vader]

Looks like a Hofner Congress with some very nasty mods done to it. Have a look in the f-holes, there should be a label inside with hofner model and serial numbers in there.

[gusto]

Yes its definately a Hofner, says Hofner on the body, top left, and engraved on the bridge.
Not sure what the mods would be as the bridge is also engraved Hofner. It has a switch and two control knobs as seen in the picture,
the switch goes either R or S.
There is no label inside, and I cant find any serial numbers etc anywhere on it.
I have looked on loads of Hofner sites but cant find one with that bridge/switch set up.

Any ideas welcome.

[Dave Vader]

[quote name='gusto' post='893802' date='Jul 13 2010, 03:08 PM']Yes its definately a Hofner, says Hofner on the body, top left, and engraved on the bridge.
Not sure what the mods would be as the bridge is also engraved Hofner. It has a switch and two control knobs as seen in the picture,
the switch goes either R or S.
There is no label inside, and I cant find any serial numbers etc anywhere on it.
I have looked on loads of Hofner sites but cant find one with that bridge/switch set up.

Any ideas welcome.[/quote]

There was a guy on one of the hofner collector sites that you could email, and he could spot anything, he got my congress down to a 1956, just by looking at the tailpiece. Sadly that was 10 years ago, is there a contact on any of the sites you looked at? There's some proper hofner nuts out there. They can help.

[gusto]

[quote name='Dave Vader' post='893966' date='Jul 13 2010, 05:34 PM']There was a guy on one of the hofner collector sites that you could email, and he could spot anything, he got my congress down to a 1956, just by looking at the tailpiece. Sadly that was 10 years ago, is there a contact on any of the sites you looked at? There's some proper hofner nuts out there. They can help.[/quote]

There are a few and I posted the pics in a couple of Hofner forums too. Have had a few different reactions though. Some say 1960's 455 and someone said as it is plywood (did I mention that on here?) and has the white binding it could be much earlier than 60's. The bridge and pick-up are hofner, but additions to the original guitar?
I cant seem to find any pics of one like it anywhere though, especially that bridge pick-up set. Also with the pearl head stock with the tortoise shell(?) diamond/rhombus shaped inlay and the pearl fret board inlays.
Im taking it to a luthier as it has some damage, but not sure what to do with it.
Options are fix it up to a 'keep areound the house' level, total restore and sell or sell as is. But the reason I bought it was because I just thought it looked lovely, so will really only want to sell it or even fix it up if it is worth spend ing the ££ to make £££?

[Dave Vader]

Old plywood hofners are brilliant, nothing else sounds quite like them. Fix it up to keep round the house and play it. Unless the neck has warped, in that case there's nothing you can do but give it to a luthier, or give it a dignified funeral.

[gusto]

Robbie from RIM Basses has it at the moment, He and John from Coda Music are going to have a look at it. The neck it split away from the body, but looks like it just needs re-gluing as its original glue has given up the ghost.
They are going to give it a once over and let me know what the options are.
I'm still unsure weather to sell it if its worth a few quid or just to keep it myself. But I do really like it, and feel strangely attached to it already, even though I cpould use the £££ from a sale fund my bass GAS.....

[KiOgon]

IIRC one of my mates got the same upgrade back in the early 60's - the 'new electronic pick-up' was a Hofner made 'bolt on' made to screw to the bottom end of the neck & the controls console made to fit over the tailpiece. Probably very collectable now if it still works & no reason why it wouldn't!

Cheers,
John